II. FORMATIVE PERIOD (ca. 300 B. C. to 30 B.C.)

`Formulas' for conducting legal cases (actiones) are
published for the first time. Statute law, passed by assemblies, becomes significant; professional oratory
begins to enter Rome (II-I cents. B.C.), practice from Greek educators; the politician-orator (e.g. Cicero).
Professional juristic consultors set up in business and begin to write books (I cent. B.C.). Collapse of the
Republic (49-30 B.C.) ends the Republican system.

III. CLASSICAL PERIOD (ca. 30 B.C. to ca. 250 A.D.)

begins with the creation of the office of Emperor
(PRINCEPS, the `First Citizen'), who has legal advisors among the members of his advisory council
(Consilium Principis).

The Emperor authorizes certain jurisconsults to issue formal decisions which can
create precedents in the courts. The Emperor becomes a court-of-appeal for all the provinces under his
control (and others).

His PREFECT-OF-THE-PRAETORIAN GUARD takes on more and more of the actual
appeal business (including that from the Roman Army) until, by the Third Century A.D. the Prefect is
first and foremost a judicial official. The Senate becomes a court to hear cases of provincial
maladministration by Senators (under AUGUSTUS).

The Emperor HADRIAN (117-138) had the RULES OF
PROCEDURE used by the various Praetors in the law courts in Rome drawn together in their final
authoritative form. Legal scholars founded schools , both at Rome (Sabinus, Cassius) and in the
provinces, especially at BEIRUT. Writers on law: ULPIAN, GAIUS. The period gradually closes by the
mid-III century, with the chaos of civil war and economic collapse.

IV. PERIOD OF CODIFICATION (IV-VI centuries)

in which authoritative handbooks and standard collections are
issued under imperial sponsorship.

Codex Theodosianus (Emperor THEODOSIUS II, 408-450)

a collection of all laws issued since 312 A.D.
(accession of Constantine). This added to the older semi-official efforts: Codex Gregorianus
(291) and Codex Hermogenianus (ca. 295).

Codex Justinianus (Emperor JUSTINIAN, 527-565) a new collection made by Tribonian and a
commission of experts; only the 2nd edition (534) survives. This superseded all earlier codes. It
contained some 5000 decisions, from the time of HADRIAN (117) to that of JUSTINIAN.

A
Supplement had to be issued even in the reign of Justinian; it was called the
Novellae For the benefit of students, the imperial commission also issued, on November 21, 533 A.D.,
an official textbook of Roman Law, called the
Institutes of Justinian, which was itself given the force of law. This was necessary since it was forbidden
to engage in writing commentaries on the Codex Justinianus.

The habit of codifying laws into official codexes strongly influenced the medieval Catholic Church, and eventually
collections of church laws (called Canons) were made. Collectively these came to be called the Corpus Juris Canonici, and
they still influence the operations of the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Orthodox Churches and others.
Up to the 20th century, the laws of Justinian could be used in German and South African courts, and most law systems which
are based on the French Code Napoleon have been strongly influenced by Roman civil law. This includes the State of
Louisiana (once a French colony, to 1803), whose Constitution was based on the Code Napoleon.